Saturday, February 24, 2007

I tend to view things in order on the disc on any box set I buy, unless there are a lot of extras, then I tend to view those first.

Example: On any given "Looney Tunes" set, I will watch the extras, then I will watch the 60 cartoons in order on the disc, then I will go back and re-watch (actually listen to, kind of like radio, while I'm typing an article or working on my computer) the cartoons with commentary.

I also try to buy the boxes in season order, but since I like to get things on sale or used as much as possible, I sometimes buy them out of order.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Starting a new job is always an interesting adventure, because you always have that learning curve that is very strange. Some companies are more forgiving than others. Some do extensive training, some do none at all. This is why there haven't been too many blogs lately. More later.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Not a big fan of "American Idol" mainly because I am not a big fan of singing competitions in general. I used to like "The Gong Show" because of the goofy acts and actually liked the initial episodes of "America's Got Talent" until the talented people rose up in the ranks and the crazy acts were sent home. Never like "Star Search" much either.

Anyway, so I am watching "The Today Show" many times over the past few weeks and each time "American Idol" plays a new episode, "Today Show" devotes an entire segment to it. Now "Idol" airs on FOX and "Today Show" on NBC. NBC always belly-aches about not having high ratings on their primetime shows, yet they devote time on their "news" programming promoting the other network. This is stupid.

NBC get a clue. Stop promoting your competition and come up with something more worthwhile to watch, or stop complaining about your ratings since you obviously like FOX's programming more.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

I rarely watch Bush's speeches on the TV anymore because of the way he farts and sputters around to say what he really wants to say which is: I want to go to war with every enemy in such a messed-up way so that the US will permanently be at war for no good reason except just to keep the military employed. In other words, why don't we just fucking bite the bullet and just declare war on the whole fucking world and draft fucking everybody and nuke fucking everybody in the name of peace?

Bush's plan all along is to escalate the war so that the succeeding president (hopefully a Republican in his mind) will be in office for two terms. For some idiotic reason, we ALWAYS re-elect Presidents while we are at war.

Also, WHY CAN'T BUSH CALL THIS WAR A CIVIL WAR???!!!

I don't like Dennis Miller anymore either. On his appearance on Leno's show last night he said that Bush has kept the peace on his watch for over 2000 days with no terrorist attacks and that's why he like Bush. Well Dennis, it could have been longer if he prevented 9/11 which I felt that he could have since I've been reading the "9/11 Report". Also, haven't we gotten enough REVENGE on our enemies since more soldiers have died in this war than died in the World Trade Center terrorist attack?

I know I am going all over the map, but I am going to make a plea to all of our enemies and friends worldwide to urge Bush to send our troops home. That is the highest honor we can give our troops. I am proud of our troops and to send them home would mean that we are respecting their efforts.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Finally saw "Snakes on a Plane" last night. Now I didn't have high hopes for this, but this exceeded my already low expectations. It's unbelievably moronic!! And this comes from someone who can stand cheesy Disney and Hammer films. It looks as if it was done by some teenagers who happened to have a budget and the ability to lure some top rank talent. Now maybe that was the point, but it certainly wasn't promoted that way. If they promoted it as a comedy like "The Big Bus", I might have bought into it a little bit more, but it actually was kind of plodding and boring, despite some nudity and goofy scenes of people being swallowed whole by snakes. Kenan Thompson did the best job as he seemed to act like this was another stupid movie like "Good Burger" (which I love) and didn't take anything seriously. Samuel L. Jackson tried to take it more straight and came off looking like a buffoon and overacting in the process. It's embarrassingly bad. I used to joke "What's 'Snakes on the Plane' about?" Now I know. It's about 105 minutes too long...

Friday, February 09, 2007

I am sick of all the text crawls and large type and logos that appear nowadays on TV. I guess everyone's afraid of someone copying someone else's work, but all that crap is so distracting. Comedian Lewis Black did a bit on one of his records where he forced CNN to remove all of the text crawls while he was being interviewed, and they did.

The problem is the text distracts you from the visual and since it zips by so fast, you don't get to read the text and so you get nothing. Newton Minnow talked about TV being a vast wasteland...well with this and tabloid "entertainment" shows like "Entertainment Tonight", "Extra", etc. and "reality" shows like "Survivor" and subpar action/adventure shows that are "X-Files" rehashes and subpar comedies about families and friends I don't care about and aren't funny, and "educational/instructional" shows that don't do either function, there's nothing to watch anymore on TV.

TV has finally become what radio became in the 50s and 60s: no shows and a whole lot of meaningless filler. I watch old movies and TV shows and listen to old radio shows to see and hear what was when people could write, actors could act and celebrity private lives were kept more private.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Well, once again I am helping out on the filming of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Golf Tournament. This is the sixth or seventh time I've done this in the last 20 years and I must say that I do have fun doing it. The footage will probably air on the weekend and usually there are many celebrities such as Bill Murray and George Lopez among others. Anyway, gotta go and sleep, because tomorrow will be a long day...

Thursday, February 01, 2007

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but on January 31, 2007, my book, "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" was released to comic book stores nationwide. Now you can purchase in person if you want to peruse the contents before buying.

About Me

Mark Arnold (1966- ) was born in San Jose, California. He is a comic book and animation historian, and has had many articles published in various publications. He has a BA in Broadcast Communication Arts from San Francisco State and has performed many celebrity interviews. He edited and published "The Harveyville Fun Times!" from 1990-2011 and published his first book "The Best of the Harveyville Fun Times!" in 2006. His second book "Created and Produced by Total TeleVision productions: The Story of Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo and the Rest" was published in 2009 by BearManor Media. His third and fourth books for BearManor are called "If You're Cracked, You're Happy: The Story of Cracked Mazagine, Book Won and Book Too" and a fifth book called "Mark Arnold Picks on The Beatles" were all issued in 2011. He plans to write a children's book and a book about Disney among other things. He currently resides in Eugene, OR.